Political News and Commentary from the Right

A federal judge in California has handed down a scathing ruling against a school that required one of its teachers to remove signs celebrating the role of God in American history from his classroom walls.

As WND reported, math teacher Bradley Johnson had banners hanging in his classroom at Westview High School in San Diego, Calif., for more than 17 years with phrases like “In God We Trust” and “All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed by Their Creator,” only to have the principal order them torn down during the 2007 school year.

But Johnson filed a lawsuit alleging the order a violation of his constitutional rights, and the teacher has now been rewarded with a court victory and a powerfully-worded ruling.

“May a school district censor a high school teacher’s expression because it refers to Judeo-Christian views, while allowing other teachers to express views on a number of controversial subjects, including religion and anti-religion?” posited U.S. District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez in his judgment. “On undisputed evidence, this court holds that it may not.”

He continued, “That God places prominently in our nation’s history does not create an Establishment Clause violation requiring curettage and disinfectant for Johnson’s public high school classroom walls. It is a matter of historical fact that our institutions and government actors have in past and present times given place to a supreme God.”

The judge further reprimanded the school, stating that while teachers at the district “encourage students to celebrate diversity and value thinking for one’s self, [they] apparently fear their students are incapable of dealing with diverse viewpoints that include God’s place in American history and culture.”

The White House is considering a new policy that would give an advantage in bids for billions in government contracts to companies that pay workers “living wages” and offer generous benefits.

WND has learned the “living wage” campaign has long been pushed by the radical Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, and was largely initiated on a local level in the 1990s with the help of a socialist party of which evidence suggests Barack Obama was a member.

Critics warn a living wage advantage for more than $500 billion in government contracts could harm small companies, with case studies showing cities that enacted similar policies in the 1990s faced major financial losses. Business groups who oppose the plan say also it would increase government procurement costs.

The Associated Press obtained documents outlining the White House plan. The documents reportedly show the government would examine the wages and benefits – such as health insurance, retirement benefits and paid leave – a firm pays its employees as a factor in the process of awarding government contracts. Another factor would be whether a contract bidder is a repeat violator of labor and employment laws.

A Labor Department compliance office would compile a score on contract bidders based on the criteria and then determine which companies would get government contracts.

Writing about a similar policy that was being considered in Chicago in 2003, Steven Malanga of the City Journal stated the movement “sneaks socialism into cities.”

Though it’s doubtful the liberal rag, Time Magazine, will agree, conservative online news source World Net Daily has named the new conservative protester as Person of the Year. The men and women who, until this year, never carried a sign, gathered at a public protest, or marched for a cause continue to challenge a runaway government completely controlled by liberal Democrats.

It’s an individual like Nate, whose transition was captured on a video. He started out as an Obama voter proud to see the first black president. Now he’s a “man who has buyer’s remorse and becomes an active defender of the Constitution and limited government.”

The mainstream media and their Democrat allies sought to label the grassroots movement an “astroturf” campaign, implying participants were paid to show up at rallies, but the ranks of these amateur political dissidents just keep growing. Other liberals counted on the energy of conservative protesters to fizzle out. Still others expected President Obama’s “Hope & Change” policies to positively impact the American economy and take the wind from the sails of the protest movement.

But the liberals’ talents for soothsaying proved to be lacking. Conservatives are organizing and networking like never before, online and on the street. Some officials estimated the crowd that gathered on September the 12th in Washington, DC was the largest ever to assemble on the Capitol Mall. And conservative pundits’ predictions that Obama’s Socialist policies will adversely affect the nation’s economy continue to come true.

Though the President and his Socialist-Democrat Lieutenants Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid continue to cram unwanted “Change” down the throats of the American people. More and more are recognizing Obama’s game plan is destroying “Hope” in America with massive new spending, record deficits and debt, and no positive impact on the US economy. The growth of the movement is evident in the President’s precipitous decline in the polls.

The Tea Party participants’ willingness to stand up for freedom, while standing in the sights of liberal Democrats’ big guns, their willingness to sacrifice time and money to make their voices heard, their willingness to learn new technology and take the fight to formerly foreign battlefields, all have earned the Tea Party participant the title of WND’s 2009 Person of the Year.

NEW YORK – A government that is constitutionally required to offer each citizen a “useful” job in the farms or industries of the nation.

A country whose leadership intercedes to ensure every farmer can sell his product for a good return.

A nation that has the power to act against “unfair competition” and monopolies in business.

This is not a description of Cuba, communist China or the old USSR. It’s the vision of the future of the U.S, as mandated by a radical new “bill of rights” drawn up and pushed by President Obama’s newly confirmed regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein. Until now, Sunstein’s proposal has received little scrutiny.

In 2004, Sunstein penned a book, “The Second Bill of Rights: FDR’S Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It More than Ever,” in which he advanced the radical notion that welfare rights, including some controversial inceptions, be granted by the state. His inspiration for a new bill of rights came from President Roosevelt’s 1944 proposal of a different, new set of bill of rights.

WND has learned that in April 2005, Sunstein opened up a conference at Yale Law School entitled “The Constitution in 2020,” which sought to change the nature and interpretation of the Constitution by that year.

Suggested campaign paints Obama critics as enemies

The Democrats, whose presidential administration previously condemned as “potential terrorists” those who oppose same-sex marriage and are offended by restrictions on firearms, all based on Internet chatter, has suggested blasting those who oppose their health care plan as “right-wing domestic terrorists” on 9/11 of this year.

According to an “Organizing for America” campaign document unveiled by the Heritage Foundation, the plan involves having activists telephone their state’s senators” on Sept. 11 to demand a “public option” which essentially would involve a government-funded and government-run monopoly on health care.

Bobby Eberle, posting on a Republican Party site called The Loft, said Obama “and his team have no limits on what they will do or say in order to inject socialist views into the minds of Americans.

“They also have absolutely no respect or appreciation for the American way and the sacrifices Americans have made in order to stay free and to promote the American way of life across the globe. Just take the latest effort being pitched at BarackObama.com. Rather than remembering the Americans who lost their lives during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Obama’s political team wants you to make phone calls on 9/11 to fight back against ‘Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists,'” Eberle documented.

The Heritage Foundation reported on the plan, which later was taken down from the Internet, and preserved the image of the proposal on its website.

After observing a female muslim student refuse to stand for the pledge of allegiance, a 16-year old ROTC member in Spring Hill, FL was suspended for 5 days for telling the irreverent student to “Take that thing off your head and act like you’re proud to be an American.”

No threats were made, no violence ensued, and the purported “victim” didn’t even complain. An oversensitive teacher overheard the remarks and reported the young girl who loves her country to the principal’s office.

Maybe it’s because her dad served in the U.S. Marines … or because her high school mascot is a fierce-looking eagle … or because she plans to enlist in the Army next summer after graduation to defend her country … whatever the reason, when Heather Lawrence saw a fellow student refuse to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and recite it with the class, the 16-year-old Junior ROTC member saw a teachable moment and took it.

And for that, she’s been suspended five days.

…

Although the student walked away and filed no complaint, a teacher overheard Lawrence’s comment and reported her to school administrators. On Friday, Lawrence was called to Assistant Principal Steve Crognale’s office and her father was called and informed she would be suspended for five days.